Whenever an organization (such as a business organization, educational organization, or government organization) is involved in providing services to customers or other users, various issues, such as problems, tend to arise. For example, whenever a new product is introduced into a market, some users will encounter difficulties due to actual defects of the product or due to users being unable to figure out how to properly use the product. In this example, two types of problems exist: a defect in the product; or lack of information provided to the user regarding use of the product. Typically, several problems can be associated with products or services provided by an organization.
To address problems associated with products or services, an organization may identify one or more of the problems that the organization deems to be the most important, and allocate resources to discover the underlying causes and come up with solutions for the one or more problems. As examples, the fixes that can be implemented can take the form of redesigning a product, implementing a fix of a current product, introducing new documentation or modifying documentation for customers, providing on-line support documentation, and so forth.
Conventionally, a mechanism does not exist that allows an organization to efficiently determine the effect of a fix or other event with respect to one or more problems that the organization has expended resources to fix or otherwise address. Often, determining the effect is manually performed by customer support experts within the organization based on a “gut feeling” of the expert or some other unreliable indication of the effects of a fix or other action with respect to a problem. Such determination of the effects of a fix or other action with respect to a problem is usually inaccurate, and can vary from person to person.